Fremont mayoral race: Harrison narrowly leading Cho, with Natarajan in third

By Chris De Benedetti, The Argus

Posted:
11/06/2012 08:00:00 PM PST

Updated:
11/07/2012 01:11:03 AM PST

FREMONT -- With most votes counted, Councilman Bill Harrison was leading the race to be Fremont's next mayor with more than 35 percent of the vote. He narrowly leads Steve Cho, a former councilman, who was second with almost 31 percent. Councilwoman Anu Natarajan was third with nearly 25.8 percent of the vote.

Aziz Akbari, a University of Southern California sophomore, was running fourth with 5.5 percent, while perennial candidate Linda Susoev was last, receiving 2.2 percent of the vote.

The candidates were competing to ascend to the mayor's position for the first time. The winner will be tasked with leading a community whose nearly 220,000 residents seem ready to tout its status as the Bay Area's fourth-largest city. A recurring campaign theme was that Fremont must do a better job of promoting its ample strengths, including being named by one study as the nation's best city for tech startups.

The winner will replace Gus Morrison, a former mayor appointed earlier this year to serve on an interim basis after Mayor Bob Wasserman passed away. Morrison endorsed Natarajan for mayor.